Silence Is Golden
by Unoriginality
Summary: <html><head></head>Envy and Edward had an ongoing struggle, until silence takes over.</html>


_"You took the words right outta my mouth_

_Oh, it must've been while you were kissing me_

_You took the words right outta my mouth_

_Oh, I swear it's true,_

_I was just about to say-"_

-"You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth (Hot Summer Nights)" Meat Loaf

Their battles always ended with no clear winner, and no clear loser. They met, fought, fucked, fought some more for good measure- sometimes with a second round of fucking- and would depart, broken and exhausted, but neither with anymore ground against the other.

Envy enjoyed the game, the constant fight for dominance that never produced a victor. As much as he wanted Edward dead, he wanted Edward himself _more_. He wanted him alive so he could kill him later, should he feel like it. He wanted him alive and forever enslaved to his own darkness, to Envy's, because as much as he hated Edward, he-

As long as he'd never let that thought finish itself-

_(it's there at the back door to his mind, lingering, seeping in like mist through the keyhole)_

-it never bothered him.

So he fought him, and fucked him, but never thought about it, because that would be a breach of taboos, that would destroy their unspoken agreement that allowed them to use each other to punish themselves, to punish each other.

Once taboos were broken, there was no going back, that was it, game over.

Perhaps Edward had wondered what was going on, what was different this time, as their ritualistic fight began. Envy offered no verbal abuse, no word games to prelude the blows his feet and fists landed, not even a flippant remark about Edward's height. Edward lifted his blade; Envy ducked to the side, swinging his foot up into Edward's gut and knocking the wind from his lungs.

Edward stumbled back a few steps; Envy shot out his arm and caught him, hand reaching up and tangling in Edward's hair tightly, yanking his head back. He captured his lips viciously, and Edward's eyes widened as glass shattered against his teeth, cutting gums and slipping into his throat and catching there, scraping and tearing delicate tissue.

The blond dropped to his knees, gagging and choking as past the glass, something smooth and cold slid down his throat, and Envy stepped back and watched, ignoring the wet feeling of blood dripping down out of the corner of his own mouth, ignoring as the cuts in his own gums healed themselves. He didn't even look away as he spat out pieces of glass, watching Edward crumple on the ground, coughing blood and gasping for breath.

Inhalation effects were immediate. They always were. Gold eyes widened and the boy gasped and choked for breath past the glass and vomit and the decay setting in on the airways. Blood and spit and a sweet-smelling clear liquid dribbled out of his mouth. Envy's vision kept swimming as he watched, as red stones reacted and worked against the effects of the poison he'd exposed himself to.

_(The taste is first, it smells sweet and tastes metallic, and there's the nausea and the decreased vision. I remember all this, isn't it funny, Shorty? It's not your father's footsteps you're following in.)_ Envy crouched down by Edward, brushing back locks of spun gold from his face, watching as his pupils dilated, as gold faded to black and disappeared.

The mist-words in Envy's mind disappeared, sucked back under the doorway as the gravity of the sun moved away, disappeared; the absence of the pull on them left behind a cold emptiness. Envy pressed his bloodied lips to the shell of Edward's ear, breathing his unfinished thoughts for the dead to hear, then straightened.

It wouldn't be long before the body was found, he figured, as he walked away, approaching the nearest building and making his way up to the roof. The inn the Elric brothers were staying in wasn't far, Envy could go and watch for when the younger one finally got tired of waiting for his brother to get back from wherever it was Edward told the poor kid he was going all the time, and go out to find him. He knew the moment the younger found his brother's body, that would be the start of his own countdown.

The words would go away, would be lost, and it'd be over.

Envy glanced down into the alley at Edward one last time. "And the rest is silence."


End file.
